Premier Paolo Gentiloni said
Thursday that the mandatory system for sharing the burden of
asylum-seekers was the minimum Italy expected from the EU after
meeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and
the leaders of the Visegrad group of countries that are against
it.
In the run-up to the EU summit that starts Thursday, European
Council President Donald Tusk sent a letter in which he called
the quotas "ineffective" and "divisive", sparking protests from
many member states and an institutional clash with the
Commission.
"Walls and closures are wrong, according to us, and the
obligatory quotas are the absolute minimum for the European
Union," Gentiloni said.
"These countries have an opinion that is very distant (from
ours).
"But it is significant that this difference, which we will
take about this evening at dinner, has not impeded a political
initiative that I consider important and I am grateful".
Gentiloni added that Italy would demand that the whole EU do
more to combat the Mediterranean migrant crisis at the European
summit.
"If we want to consolidate the watershed in the fight against
traffickers and change the human rights situation in Libya in a
significant way, we need a stronger financial, logistical and
political commitment from the whole European family," he said.
"Italy will ask for this tonight".
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